1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printer controlling apparatus and methods for processing print data generated for print output for example by an application program of a host computer and also relates to a recording medium for recording a program code for executing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Usually, when a document prepared by using an application program is to be printed, a printer driver is driven in accordance with a printing procedure of the application. The printer driver converts the print data into a print command by the driven procedure and transmits it to a printer apparatus. Upon receiving the print command, the printer apparatus sequentially analyzes and executes the received command.
However, the printing procedure of an application program is a characteristic of the application. Some of the newly developed applications with high-level functions are designed to repeat the same plotting process again and again or to divide a figure consisting of a large block into small parts or to combine an enormous number of figures to print an area which will, after all, be plotted as a small figure.
Such print data not only increases the amount of data to be transmitted but also results in a problem that, considering only the printed result, an unnaturally long time period is required due to the fact that the apparatus for processing such data is also greatly loaded.
Furthermore, since only a minimized amount of memory is commonly mounted on a printer apparatus because of a limitation of costs, the plotting operation may become impossible due to a shortage of memory that is necessary to process the plotting data when a great amount of plotting data as described is to be processed.